Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Suspended Philadelphia bishop resumes work


From Philadelphia via Kansas City-

Although Episcopal leaders in the Philadelphia region are urging him to resign, long-suspended Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. told them Tuesday that he intended to stay at the helm of the five-county Diocese of Pennsylvania.

At a meeting at Episcopal Church House in Society Hill, "he made it clear to us he would resume his responsibilities," said the Rev. Glenn Matis, president of the standing committee that has run the 55,000-member diocese during Bennison's nearly three-year absence.

It was the 66-year-old bishop's second day at work since the Episcopal Church charged him in October 2007 with mishandling and concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a minor three decades earlier.

A church court found him guilty in 2008 and ordered him defrocked and deposed as bishop. A church appeals court last month concluded that he had engaged in "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," but that the statute of limitations on those charges had expired, clearing the way for his restoration.

Read more:

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/17/2157143/suspended-philadelphia-bishop.html#ixzz0wxKYog38

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